Simyon's arm was throbbing with pain, where he had been struck by the old woman. It was a sign of just how strong her attacks were.
Right now, Simyon had a rare-ranked metal body. While he was a stage 4 warrior, they had been consuming the new pills trying to reach the 5th stage, and trying to increase his body's strength, but he and Liam had yet to reach it. Either way, the metal body was not something humans would usually have, and it was the trait that weapons would have in terms of their strength.
The ranking system of the metal body was then split into the same ranking as rarity of items, and right now, Simyon had a rare body. If it wasn't for this, then it was quite possible that his whole arm would have been sliced off.
"The Lethal Bite Clan has ordered my death, then what about the others, are there those attacking them as well?" Simyon asked.
"I think you should worry a lot more about yourself, kid, before you start worrying about them!" The old woman continued to run across the hard ground.
Each step she took made sure to avoid the green-colored substance. When they were close enough, a burst of Qi allowed her to leap across the area and swing their sword aiming right for Simyon's neck.
He braced himself, as he widened his feet, and summoned the Qi from his body. The sword swung out, and struck right against his neck making a loud clanging sound.
The sword had rebounded off as if it had hit a large solid rock.
"Impossible!" The woman exclaimed, confused as to why Simyon's head wasn't rolling on the floor.
While close, she went to strike again, and Simyon managed to lift his hand up in the way this time. When the sword struck his forearm, the same clanging sound was heard as the sword had rebounded back again.
"My attack hit you before, so why is your body so hard right now, what type of arts is this!" The woman exclaimed.
She then jumped back and skidded across the floor. If her current attacks weren't working, then she would just need to produce an even stronger attack. For Simyon, his body was now being reinforced with the Qi of a fourth-stage warrior. Before, the attack was unexpected, so only his rare metal body was defending the attack.
But just like how one strengthens a sword, or sharpens its attack by adding Qi, one could also do the same to strengthen his body, which was why her attacks weren't getting through, even though she was a warrior at a higher stage.
Rushing in, she charged forward and swung her sword, hitting Simyon right in the stomach. He was pushed, skidding across the ground, until he nearly had fallen into the river of green goop behind him.
He was still unsure what the green liquid could do and didn't think it was the best thing to find out so soon.
The attack was strong, but it still hadn't torn through his skin, it had caused some internal injury to him, he was hurting inside, but he would put on a brave face.
"You have an unusually strong body, but it seems that all you can do, you can barely keep up with my attacks right? It's only a matter of time, your strong body can't keep you alive for that long!" She exclaimed.
She was right about that, with each block, Simyon was using his Qi, and eventually his Qi would run out. He wanted to use the power of his clothes, but the woman from the Lethal Bite Clan was far faster than him at attacking.
"Alright, let's see how long you can last!" the woman charged in again, and struck with the sword clanging against Simyon's body.
The loud clang was heard, but she soon followed up with a strike hitting other parts with the sword again and again.
"All this is like taking down a big rock, if you hit it enough, then cracks will start to show!" The woman shouted, striking Simyon's body again, and again.
"This useless hard body!" She shouted. "All this is good for is taking a beating. You make a great training tool! What's the point of being able to take all of this beating if you can't strike back!"
Out of frustration, Simyon went to reach out, he tried to grab onto her, and freeze her with the glove, but he managed to grab nothing but the air.
"My body is not useless!" Simyon shouted back as he turtled up, protecting himself. The hits weren't cutting him but they were swinging his body from side to side each time he got hit.
"My body is a shield for the others, the strongest shield! I will use my body, to protect the others, and help them anyway I can!"
"If I want to be helpful, then I at least need to specialize in one thing! So call me what you want!" Simyon stated.
His body, it was becoming more grounded, his will, it was becoming more focused, and he wasn't realizing it himself, but his body was no longer swaying from side to side anymore.
The hits, they were hurting less and less as well. His skin, it was hardening even more compared to before.
[Elite Grade Body, has been achieved]
The earring on his ear, it glowed slightly, as his body hardened. With the next strike of the sword, it had chipped.
She swung it again, and a large crack had appeared on the sword, and then when she swung the sword from above hitting the top of Simyon's head, the blade had completely smashed in half.
"His body… it's gotten even stronger, but how is that possible in the middle of the fight? Aren't these just students of the academy? How could my sword not cut him!"
Frustrated, she threw the sword away. The Lethal Bite Clan, they were strong in other techniques anyway, and if she could just hit him into the green liquid then maybe it would be fine.
She charged in, shifting her feet perfectly. Simyon continued to turtle up, and right when she was in front of him, both of her fists had thrust forward, bashing right into his stomach.
His back had arched slightly, bending outward, but Simyon's feet didn't move into the green liquid behind him.
'She must know this liquid does something, if she's trying to push me into it, I can't fall in!'
Not only that, but it was the perfect opportunity, Simyon went ahead and grabbed both hands, holding right onto her shoulders. He firmly gripped into place, and one glove started to chill and freeze the edge of her arm, while the other glove, it was starting to spark slightly.
"All of this that I have right now, the body, and the gloves, is thanks to him. It's thanks to him that I have made it this far, and it's thanks to him that I can become a warrior that can protect people from getting hurt from bitches like you." Simyon smiled.
He activated the power of the gloves, holding her as hard as he thanks to him. It's thanks to him that I have made it this far, and it's thanks to him that I can become a warrior that can protect could, her body was being shocked from the right side, while her left side was starting to freeze slightly.
She was in great pain, and had already used up a lot of Qi attacking. Although Qi was lost from Simyon with each hit, he had hardly moved. His attacker was using up a lot more Qi with her strikes, and now she was in a weakened state.
While holding onto her, Simyon started to squeeze harder and harder, as if he was trying to flatten her body.
"Arghh!" Simyon shouted. "So what do you think, for someone who's just a meat shield huh, I'm pretty good!"
The gloves' magical power was continuing to activate and although not immensely strong with everything going on, the woman was going through great pain.
However, she soon noticed something amiss, the green slime behind, it was growing in size. It was getting larger, and a large mound of slime had appeared right behind Simyon.
A shadow was cast over the two, and the green slime was falling off revealing a large centipede-like creature with multiple segments of its body.
"Haha!" the woman managed to laugh. "If you don't let go of me, the beast will kill you, and I promise I will kill all of you and your friends!"
The ice was growing on her body, reaching the top of her neck. Just a bit more and her entire body would be frozen over dealing with her.
"I can… take the hit!" Simyon exclaimed, not moving from his spot.
"You idiot, we'll both die!" She cried out.
The beast had its eyes locked on the two below, and immediately charged its large head toward the two of them. It had two large deadly claws that were laced with the green slime. From the slime that had dropped off its body, the nearby rocks it had hit, they had completely melted.
Simyon could hear the sound of the beast coming closer, but he had to believe in himself. The head reached out, and right from above, a large fist had hit the beast on top of the head. It was a large powerful strike.
The head fell back into the green slime river, with a hole in it, and the rest of its body started to sink. At the same time, the woman from the Lethal Bite Clan was able to witness what had happened in her final moments as her body started to heel over.
Finally, Simyon could let go, and he fell to the floor.
"You did a good job, kid." A familiar voice said, having arrived.
Simyon, looking up, could see that it was none other than Dame, who began to inspect the woman who was frozen.
"Crap, this doesn't look like the Vice Clan Head either. I know you just been through a lot, but we need to move, one of our group is in big trouble."
